Who Killed The Electric Car?

This is an interesting little documentary through my LoveFilm subscription. Back in the late 1990's, California passed a state mandate saying that it was going to cut pollution and greenhouse gases by having 10% of all cars to have zero emissions by 2012. At the same time, GM were developing a high performance electric car called the EV1.

Here we see a classic case of the U.S. government, both national and local, shooting itself in the foot or, rather, allowing the big oil and car companies to do it for them. The EV1 was withdrawn (none were sold, only leased to customers) and the state mandate changed under pressure from the car companies, who could make more money from petrol and diesel powered vehicles, and the oil companies, who wanted hydrogen (supplied by themselves) as the replacement, if ever.

It's a nice little film, as much to see the corruption of politics by capital as the short-sightedness of government and big business.